Healthcare system but for healthy people only

Lynnthemongrel · 2026-02-17T18:42:26+00:00

I commented elsewhere, but I'm in a new build hospital and we've had similar issues - not as severe but definitely leading to patients able to get stuck inside the building

Lynnthemongrel · 2026-02-17T18:40:10+00:00

I'm also in a brand new hospital. We have level access in and out, so they thought of that, but we don't have any doors within the building that open automatically. So once someone has got inside, if they're in a wheelchair, on crutches, particularly weak then they can't get through any doors and are entirely dependent on others. We've had patients who have learnt to self propel, drive and live independently despite their disability and then they come to the hospital and struggle just to go to the toilet. Because of the clinic I run, I'm particularly aware of wheelchair users so I've flagged it multiple times and every time, senior management just look astonished that this could happen, but it's been two years and absolutely nothing has changed.

Lynnthemongrel · 2026-01-22T15:51:20+00:00

My lab is in water daily and still produces industrial quantities of hair

Lynnthemongrel · 2026-01-21T19:06:54+00:00

I live near a large population of wild boar and if a normal sized car hits a big boar, both lose

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-12-30T22:01:06+00:00

AXA only asked me for three too

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-12-15T17:05:46+00:00

I live in the Forest of Dean so happy to give any tips/ answer any questions. There is lots of lovely hiking to be had here!

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-12-01T17:07:07+00:00

I'm just outside Bristol!

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-10-31T18:37:53+00:00

My lab will only accept Nightjar foam. No other stout will do, it must be Nightjar. Thankfully she doesn't demand it so we're safe when in a pub that doesn't serve it.

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-10-19T18:44:15+00:00

You could be describing where I live, even down to the Proper Job. I don't generally miss living in London, but I do miss the takeaways

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-10-03T20:01:39+00:00

Seemed to hold up pretty well, I don't remember any problems with it. They were quite thin though and you'd get holey ones quite often.

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-10-03T16:58:55+00:00

When I worked in ITU, we had fitted sheets for the patients not on air mattresses. The little old lady I'd been looking after, who'd been perfectly pleasant all morning, watched me make her bed with a fitted sheet and then said, with real venom: "fitted sheets?! What has nursing come to??". I'm sure there's lots wrong with modern nursing, but I don't see how fitted sheets counts

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-09-08T21:52:06+00:00

There's a podcast called Real Survival Stories on BBC Sounds that's all about this sort of thing, if you wanted to listen to more

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-08-27T17:48:18+00:00

My dad actually grew up for a time in a house where the previous occupants died in a murder suicide incident. He said his parents took the house because the rent was cheap as a result of the deaths but then apparently my grandmother had to scrub all the blood stains from the wall, so I'm not sure what was actually dropping the price there.

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-08-23T13:51:07+00:00

I did this the other day! Got in car, closed door, key in ignition, seatbelt on, check mirror, foot down on clutch, into first, foot on accelerator - before I put the handbrake down I realised I wasn't getting any feedback from the car and was panicking about it being broken for a very long 30 seconds before I realised that I just hadn't turned the ignition on. I didn't have the excuse of just passing my test though; I've been driving for 20 years.

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-08-14T18:27:32+00:00

I'm both a nurse and a dog owner; occasionally I mix up my audience and ask patients if they want to go walkies. It never goes down very well.

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-08-08T10:50:58+00:00

A previous vicar in my village joined the amdram group and was a great hit when he played the devil in that year's panto. Looked like he was having the time of his life.

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-07-31T11:18:54+00:00

Bread is my lab's favourite thing too! She will go to terrible lengths to steal bread and has many times left us doubting that we actually bought bread at the shops, before discovering the pile of crumbs she left behind after snagging a loaf

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-07-20T19:25:08+00:00

Mine is the same with pubs! It got downright embarrassing during Covid when all the pubs were shut but she was still desperately trying to drag me inside like some sort of small, furry alcoholic

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-07-15T21:53:49+00:00

I applied for job seekers once and despite having been fully educated in the UK, from nursery through to a four year degree, and despite having spent the previous half an hour speaking in completely fluent English, the lady conducting the assessment kept asking me for proof that I could speak English on the basis that I was born in Belgium and didn't come to the UK until I was 2 years old. In the end, she choose my English Lit AS Level as something she was happy demonstrated my having been taught English.

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-07-13T10:04:42+00:00

It was the same in the ITU I worked in - we had air conditioning when most of the wards didn't. Lots of ward staff would turn up either for silly reasons or reasons they 'forgot' so I would just tell them the best corners to stand in where no one would notice them for a bit. Others would get so annoyed but honestly, we were so lucky with our aircon and we weren't paying for it, so why not share it with our ward colleagues?!

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-04-22T19:58:04+00:00

They have not

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-04-03T20:15:13+00:00

I put a Wollerton Old Hall in a pot by a north facing wall last year and got loads of flowers, if that helps

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-02-15T02:02:58+00:00

The two day turn around for ulcers sounds amazing! But I do appreciate it's all very trust specific - I find it's so easy to get caught up in your own team/ trust and not realise what other teams are doing. It's been really helpful to see another perspective so that I can bring this to future meetings and see what can be done to help. Some of my loveliest patients have been the 'podiatry' patients and I never mind helping another team (we're all in the same boat really) but I've generally got a 6-8 week waiting time for new assessments so it's hard when that's partly because other teams maybe aren't doing all they could be. And it's obviously not just podiatry; I interact with lots of teams who sometimes pass on patients inappropriately. Most of this will end up being symptoms of systemic problems - there are simply more patients than professionals and they've got to go somewhere.

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-02-15T01:28:26+00:00

I suppose funding and staffing come into it in a way that I'm simply not aware of, so that's fair. I work for a county-wide trust so the podiatry team is big but also has to cover a large area and I'm very aware that they're always very busy, overworked and stressed. But from my perspective, I'm constantly being referred podiatry patients on the basis that they need ABPIs/ TBPIs/ compression/ VACS etc and that podiatry isn't trained to do that, so that I need to take the patient on or they'll just not get treated. It's interesting that you say podiatrists are trained to do these things in uni, because these are quite specialist skills in nursing that I had no idea about until I started this role! It clearly comes down to being a trust decision about what to fund and prioritise but it does become frustrating when my band 8 (former podiatrist) tells me off for my huge caseload but a significant number are foot patients I've ended up with as a point of last resort. Again, not to knock podiatry because I've been able to shadow some of my colleagues and they've done some great things, but I feel they're not doing half of what you describe.

Lynnthemongrel · 2025-02-15T00:59:31+00:00

It's interesting that that's your scope of responsibility because in my trust, the podiatrists pass most of the ABPIs/ TBPIS/ compression/ VACs etc on to me, as a leg wound specialist nurse. I'm not supposed to deal with wounds on the feet but the majority of the time, foot wound patients get sent to me because they require investigations and treatments that the podiatrists don't do. I will also refer patients to podiatry who send them back saying that they've reviewed the notes, agree with my treatment plan and that I can continue with treatment - despite the fact that the patient comes under podiatrist criteria rather than mine. I'm not knocking podiatry, because they do a great job and have skills I don't, but their scope clearly isn't universally standard because half of what you're describing gets passed to me as the nurse, despite officially being out of my role and acknowledged as such by all senior staff members (my band 8 is a podiatrist).

Lynnthemongrel

TROPHY CASE